Month: January 2017

Enlarge / This artist's concept illustrates a supermassive black hole with millions to billions times the mass of our Sun. (credit: NASA)

Some of the most exotic and intriguing objects in the universe, such as neutron stars and black holes, are largely beyond the capability of scientists to study directly. But they can be studied by looking at details of the extremely energetic regions of space immediately around these objects. That's precisely what NASA intends to do with its latest astrophysical award.

On Tuesday afternoon, the space agency announced it would fund the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission, with three space telescopes capable of measuring the polarization of cosmic X-rays in the vicinity of objects such as magnetars, isolated pulsars, pulsar wind nebula and supernova remnants, microquasars, active galaxies, and more. The mission, slated for a launch in 2020, will be funded at $188 million for instrument development, launch, and data analysis. The Italian Space Agency will contribute highly sensitive X-ray detectors.

“We cannot directly image what’s going on near objects like black holes and neutron stars, but studying the polarization of X-rays emitted from their surrounding environments reveals the physics of these enigmatic objects,” said Paul Hertz, astrophysics division director for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “IXPE will open a new window on the universe for astronomers to peer through. Today, we can only guess what we will find.”

Enlarge / This is the current version of Uconnect, but the Android version should look a lot like this. (credit: FCA)

At CES 2017, Google and Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) are demoing a concept infotainment system based on Android 7.0 Nougat. This isn't the first time Android has been twisted into a car infotainment OS, but it is one of the first times Google is heavily involved in the process. The project is the next step of Google's "Android Automotive" initiative—a version of Android built as a car infotainment OS.

Remember "Android Automotive" is a different product from "Android Auto." Android Auto isn't an operating system. Like Apple's CarPlay, it's a "projected" car interface—the software runs on the phone and uses the car screen as an external monitor. "Android Automotive" is Google's plan to make Android into a fully-fledged car operating system.

Google's plan would be to sell Android to car OEMs exactly the same way it sells Android to phone OEMs. Google gives away the base operating system for free and entices OEMs with killer Google apps like Google Maps and the Play Store. The catch is that the Google apps are proprietary, and licensing them from Google means signing a contract to follow Google's compatibility rules and bundle all applicable Google services with the device. Phone OEMs that do this are part of the Open Handset Alliance, and Google is hoping that automakers will want to be active members of the Open Automotive Alliance.

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Honor, the budget offshoot of Chinese hardware giant Huawei, is releasing another surprisingly decent budget-minded smartphone to Europe and the US.

The Honor 6X, which was released in China in late 2016, features a 5.5-inch 1080p screen, speedy octa-core Kirin 655 SoC, and a dual-camera system for sharper pictures. And while that might not sound too exciting on paper—and despite Honor's teeth-gritting claim that the Honor 6X "is the smartphone for Internet-minded millennials"—those are impressive specs for a phone that costs a mere £225/$250. That's nearly half the price of a OnePlus 3T.

Even better, Honor hasn't skimped on the rest of the phone to hit that price point. Alongside the Kirin 655 SoC—which features four A53 cores running at 2.1GHz and four running at 1.7GHz—there's 3GB or 4GB of RAM, 32GB or 64GB of storage with microSD expansion, and a hefty 3340mAh battery that Honor claims will last as much as two days without a charge. Should users run short on power, there's 5V/2A fast charging support too.